A master-slave network generally includes a master device (Master Device, MD for short), a slave device (Slave Device, SD for short), and a user device (User Device, UD for short). The MD is responsible for managing an SD that is homed to a management area, and when necessary, communicating and interacting with another MD based on a communications protocol between the MDs. The MD may also bear a service function of the SD, and provide a service outward. The SD cooperates with the MD to implement a service function, provides a service outward, and may provide a management signaling channel and a service forwarding channel for a next-level SD. The UD may be connected to an autonomous network to obtain a service.
In the master-slave network, the UD first needs to obtain an IP address before obtaining a service from the autonomous network. Generally, the MD centrally manages all Internet Protocol (Internet Protocol, IP for short) address allocation. After receiving a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, DHCP for short) IP request of the UD, the SD transparently transmits the request to the MD level by level. Then the MD allocates an IP address to the UD based on the request, and transparently transmits the allocated address to the UD level by level.
However, current IP address allocation has an excessively long delay, and consequently communication efficiency of the master-slave network is low.